ok, here's what i have opted for.
$shortname = $_GET['shortname'];
$dateURL = $_GET['date'];
$use_errors = libxml_use_internal_errors(true);
$xml = simplexml_load_file('XML/showtimes.xml');
if (!$xml) {echo "NO XML loaded<br>";}else{echo "XML IS loaded<br>";}
$results = $xml->xpath('/rtnshowtime/filmtitle[child::shortname="'.$shortname.'"]');
foreach ($results as $result) {
echo "showtimes for ".$dateURL."<br>";
foreach ($result->show as $result2) {
if ($result2->date == $dateURL) {
echo " -".$result2->time."- ";
}
}
}
that produces this for example:
showtimes for 02152013
-1300- -1400- -1500- -1600- -1700-
i use $_GET to get the date and shortname from the URL, then i use the shortname to decide which movie inside the xml that i will be dealing with. i then produce that as a result with the first foreach. i then run a second foreach within the first foreach specifically dealing with the child element that contains the dates and times. i then use an if statement to segregate which date i will be dealing with based on the URL. because of that if statement, i can then echo all of the times within that result where the sibling dates are the same. i would like to echo the times such as: 1300, 1400, 1500, 1600 with no comma following the last time, but i dont know how to do that. i tried using implode(), but because each time echo is inside an if statement it's an object instead of array results. i assume that... i'm not extremely familiar with the terminology. i have instead opted for a space and - before each time and a - and space after each time. it will have to work for now. :)
thanks to all of you guys for your assistance! stackoverflow ROCKS!!!